Jewels knitting & crochet, thoughts and doings

Saturday, December 22

FO - The Man Socks

I finished them on time!!

Another proud new sock knitter moment for me. The man person better love getting them for Christmas!! I'm sure he will.

I started a pair of Monkey Socks (pattern by Cookie A) with the Trekking XXL that Jenna gave me. I guess I'm still new enough with sock yarn and socks that I was delightfully amazed how the colors just pop out brilliantly when knit up. I got a little more than the first lace repeat done today. Oh my, holidays and free time are grand! :)

And, an early Christmas present I bought with a gift certificate given to me by the new prof at work. Thank you Melody!!

I love that there's some basic patterns in there for knitting some socks for all sizes out of different weights of yarn - even worsted and chunky. I want to make some worsted wool ones for B when he's clearing snow.

Friday, December 21

Lucy, Curly's girl

Curly got a post from Lucy today!! I just fell in love with Lucy when I saw her pics before, Curly's U.S.A. look-a-like. Thanks Pam.

Woooo, I finished the pair of mansocks today for my husband for Christmas. It was dark already when I finished them so I hope to have a pic posted tomorrow of them. I am so glad that I finished them on time. I'm on holidays now til Jan 3 so I'm feeling relaxed and mostly have the Christmas pressure off of me. I hate that feeling. I have tons of new books and tons of new sock yarn that my profs at work totally spoiled me with, so that's how I want to spend my holiday, knitting and reading = relaxation.

Monday, December 17

Trekking XXL is my reality

THANK you Jenna, thank you thank you, my sock-knitting enabler.She was away at a conference in London and of course scouted out the nearest yarn store and she found one that carried Trekking XXL, which I've been coveting for,..um, forever!!It's so soft and luscious, and has the most beautiful shades of blue.

I unveil thee

My photo does not do it justice, it's gorgeous. I'm going to start a pair of MONKEY's for myself over the holidays.

No SSS here

Behind again in blogging and blogreading - the last few weeks winter has hit here with ick weather and snow and crappy driving so it's taken it's toll on time and energy.I have been knitting though...I finished my first man sock and 80% done on the second sock. They're a surprise for the husbandperson for Christmas. My mom had made him some wool socks years ago and he wore them right out but loved them, so he'll finally be impressed with something I've knitted and can enjoy it instead of just a half-assed nod and a "that's nice" when I'm show-offing my stuff.Aren't they great? I didn't think it would happen to me,...ever, but Jenna warned me that I would become like so many of you, addicted to sock knitting. Damn if she wasn't right! I love it, and feel so accomplished about it too.

I made a little computer mitt, actually 2 of them for my g/f to keep her wrists warm all day. We think she's got some arthritis, but after trying them out, she said the extra warmth makes a huge difference and she has less pain. Of course I'm making her a few different colors to match some different outfits she wears to work.

They're small so don't hinder typing on the keyboard.

Getting ready for the Christmas holidays and my 10 days off from work, relaxing, reading and knitting. Yay

Friday, November 23

LOL dog - the funniest

Wednesday, November 14

thank you

Thanks everyone for your comments on my recent posting...

Great idea Andrea, on doubling up the scarves. I was thinking of wearing this one with the hot pink cashmerino cowl I made. Now I'm thinking I'll have to make another scarf in the Debbie Bliss dark turquoise I bought on sale..I'll take a pic with the three colors together on the weekend (only available daylight hours) so I can use skylight instead of flash and you can tell me what you think of the tri color mix.

Thanks Deneen...I'm thinking my third pair will be for me so I can try wearing them and feel that home-knitted sock feeling I hear so much about.

Jenna - hehe, you won't rest until I admit I'm addicted to making socks like you, LOL. I'm for sure addicted to all the beautiful sock yarns, and am rather liking that I seem to be able to sit down for a few minute break, knit a few rows of the sock and keep knitting sporadically on them as well as on my Saturday morning wakeup time.

Dawn, thanks again for getting me sock-started without fear with your pattern.

Thanks for commenting Kelly, I know that little girl is going to love her new cupcake purse.

and Brenda..your sock creations have inspired me for my blogreading career!! And you're right, I'm thinking of all kinds of people, friends, relatives I want to knit socks for gifts now. :)

of course, a scarf

I fell in love with the color of this yarn, it is so vibrant, shiny and striking. Debbie Bliss, Merino D in a dark mustard color.

I poured through my Scarf Style book, which I bought quite awhile ago and still had not used. I rather liked the simple blend of stitches, yet enough changes so it's not boring to knit. Like I needed another scarf :S The thing is with Winnipeg, once winter arrives, fancy scarves get put away and you have to wear a hat and bundle up with a huge wrapscarf.

Two beautiful socks

Well I finished my second sock on the weekend, and I'm pleased that it turned out matching but without the gussetpickup flaws in the first one. I watched a video or two on knittinghelp.com and also looked at pics and read about pickup hints on a few sites and pulled it off without a hitch. I'm so pleased with them.

I even cast right on for a new pair, same pattern. I treated myself to a pair of bamboo needles to test them out and see how I liked them. They're 6" long which is WONDERFUL for DPN knitting. They're also definitely less slippy than the other alum/steel ones I used for the first pair. The second pair, I bought a skein of REGIA Crazy Color that was on sale for $3.25 so that's a good price for a pair of socks, yes? So, perhaps I'm a new sock knitter, no committments on that yet, LOL

Wednesday, October 31

My finished sock

Check out my beautiful sock. I started on the second one right away, and have just finished turning the heel. I read about, and looked at pics on the net again, of the "picking up of the gusset stitches" and found out I had done it wrong. Apparently a lot of people even had made that mistake, and yes, even Grumperina did, so I don't feel so bad. It still turned out okay I think, and I'm proud of it.

I'm wanting to have some delicious sock yarn in those fab colors that so many people use. I love this stuff that Brenda used - look at her beautiful socks; she makes gorgeous ones. And Jenna, who goes to school at my work, quickly became a sock bug. I wonder if I'll become addicted like so many...

I am contemplating ordering a set of the Harmony DPNsfrom KnitPicks; would be nice just to have the sizes I may need. I used plain slippery needles to make these ones and got used to them, though a few times the yarn just ran right off those slippery little buggers, so want to maybe try the Harmony or some bamboo ones to see if it's more comfortable.

Monday, October 22

no more ladders now in sock sock

Well I worked on Saturday morning on my little sock project. Yeppers, I'm making an actual sock, with actual sock yarn, and actual DPN's 3.00mm size. It started a bit loosy goosy, but now I've actually (did I use that word yet? haha) eliminated any ladders with my needle changes. I'm quite happy with that. Here's what my sock looks like now

and here's a closeup on the stitches now

Aren't they beeeeeautiful? Happy me. I'm excited to start the 2nd sock to see if I can eliminate those top ladders and pick up the gusset stitches prettier. Of course if I do make it look better I'll probably want to make a 3rd sock :~

Here's my coffee break knitting project, mostly plain knitting in the round, which of course gives you the beautiful stockinette stitch, but I found I can knit, walk and even hang onto my smoke at the same time, so knitting in the round is a great coffee break project for me. With the yarn choices I did, I'm calling it the cupcake purse. Some little girl will love it I bet. It's cute.

I also worked on my lace shawl on Sunday and finished the 4th repeat. I'll share that project, my first lace project, in a separate post this week. I'm extremely proud of lace knitting my first time.

The pattern is Dawn's and they're the exact style of socks I wear in the winter. Knee or even calf-length socks drive me crazy uncomfy clining to my pants. Thanks for sharing your pattern Dawn. I've heard people talk about "turning the heel" being a big deal, I think it, and the short rows are easy. It's the picking up of the gusset stitches and making them look neat that' s the tricky part I think. Any hints for me on that? I'll have to watch that video of picking up stitches again, maybe that'll help.

Monday, October 15

OMG, it's me and I'm finally blogging

Well that was a longer than planned sabattical from blogging. My apologies to any readers I have (and haven't lost by now).

Summer was wonderful here in Manitoba. Gorgeous weather, I even made it to Grand Beach for a few days. Camping, though it was in an air conditioned trailer, was still great, knitting and crocheting outside all day; bonfires and moves and chips and dip at night. Alas, it's fall here now. Beautiful weather right now, for fall that is; hard to believe in a few weeks we'll probably have snow, yech. Yah snow is pretty, but the cold weather and being stuck inside all the time sucks bigtime. And driving the distance to work every day sucks BIGGER time. I try and remember how much we enjoy the country property all summer though, every time I'm driving in the snow crap in the winter.

Anyways, on to some projects I've worked on it the past few months. Knitting mostly and some crocheting.

Little Honey Bear Hat I made from Crochet Today.It turned out so cute, I gave it to a prof at work for her little 5 year old daughter who's adorable in it. Pardon the waterbottle model in this photo.

Also made another Fat Bottom Bag, which is such a wonderful pattern. Great pattern to work with and beautiful finished object.

I haven't been commenting tons, but I'm almost caught up on my blogreading which is usually done on the weekend now.

I read a post yesterday that described me to a "T". On "Her Blog" - have a read on it. Probably describes the dilemma (sp?) of a lot of us bloggers, who take pics, who are on message boards, and Flickr, and Ravelry, and CAL's, and KAL's....

So we're celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary today. Wow. Almost my whole adult life it seems - and hey, we made it this far so that's something in itself.

Friday, July 27

Ravelry and ...

I've been so addicted to Ravelry and slowwwwwly getting a few things there that I just realized I haven't posted to my blog!! I think the best thing about ravelry that I love is being able to see, in ONE place and without hours of searching or trying to remember which blog you saw which project on, is being able to see dozens of the pattern the way other knitters or crocheters have FO'd it. It's great for ideas on alternate yarns to use for a project, as so many patterns have yarns that I can't find or have access to on my planet. The ravelry folks are doing awesome on the setup of it. I'm a fan for sure.

I've managed to keep up watching BB8, sometimes read the spoiler news and sometimes just wait til the show. It amazes me how immature these twits are though.

In only 3 weekends I managed to finish a knitting project I figured would take me a longggg time. I'm starting to stash presents away for Xmas, though sometimes I'm not sure if some of the recipients want to receive ANOTHER thing made by me. Always second guessing that.So, here's a pic of the finished Liesel scarf.

I used 3 skeins of Schachenmayr "Donna" and my Denise 5.00mm needles. I found the pattern extremely easy to follow and knit quite fast. Usually making a scarf can bore the crap outta you but each row(10 rows) is different so it's a pattern that involves you in its creation. I'll definitely make another one. The pattern is on the net, just google Liesel.

Sunday, July 15

BB8 link

Gazebo is a FO

Take THAT you mosquito bastards!! The screening is on the gazebo and 'ze blood shall be sucked no more'. :) I believe many hours will be spent in here during my holidays. B is starting on getting it filled with empty beer bottles too, haha. What an awesome job he did, designing it on the computer in Autocad from beginning to building it all by himself, even putting the rafters and roof on by himself.

2 socks done! and sleepmask

Whee, my spa socks are done.

I started the second one IMMEDIATELY when I finished the first. I think that's the only way I'll not get the dreaded SSS. There's mistakes in it I know, but at least I was able to duplicate the mistakes in the second one so they both match and both fit me too.

I made a little sleepmask to match it too. Much needed for those weekend naptimes :)

Tuesday, July 10

Another doggy sweater - I love the way the color mix turned out. I just used up some part-skeins on the whole thing.

YAY - I got my Ravelry invite today!! I see I've got some photo work of my stash to do, which I wanted to do and organize anyways. Ravelry looks FUN, and has some great ideas in it, not just a regurgitation of blog posts. I've been managing to do some blogreading and computer relaxation in the evenings while the husbandperson is watching mindnumbing TV, LOL.

I've started watching the new BigBrother 8 season too. Yeesh these people seem S.O. immature for their ages. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with watching that much TV (3hours a week), haha

Vaykay in 4 weeks, then I'll have time for more knitting and crocheting my half-done afghan. B finished building the screen gazebo so I know where my ass will be plunked all day for 2 weeks of holidays!! wheeeee

Thursday, July 5

First sock (sorta)

I'm so proud of myself for teaching myself to use DPN's on a first project. The pattern is from Knit.1 magazine Spring 2007. Called SPA SOCKS.

I learned how to do the 3-needle bindoff doing these too. Bravely plunged into the pattern, just figuring I'll follow it row by row and watch the heel, then the gusset appear since I couldn't picture a pattern just turning into a sock! I cast on for the 2nd sock immediately too, cause I knew I'd get second-sock-syndrome if I didn't do it right away.

Anyways, it was a success since it actually does look like a sock, and surprise surprise - it even FITS me!!Oh, the yarn is called "Sorbetto", made in Italy, 90% cotton.

Weather is great summer weather in Winnipeg. Yikes - my g/f lives in Phoenix and it was 46C above yesterday. Insanity.

No shaping knit shrug

A colleague at work gave me some ever so soft LB Homespun yarn in white, so I made this shrug that looks so cute with summer dresses.

As you can see her face seems to be invisible in the picture, LOL. The pattern is a free download from Interweave. It was very easy to make, though it took me some getting used to with the large needles.

Tuesday, June 19

mini vacay

Well I'm on my 4th day (and last) of my 4 day mini-vacation. Just took a few days of my vacation to wind down.

I finished my Calculus class too, 6 weeks, so verrrry fast learning and I did hours of homework every day, but I LEARNED IT!!!! I'm very happy with that and proved to myself that I could do all the work and understand it all. I plan on keeping it up too and practicing a lot of it over the summer yet more.

Hubby built a screened in gazebo for us!! That will make summer so much more enjoyable, without the mosquitos driving us crazy. It turned out so good too. He has now finished the roof off and the cedar siding and just has to build the screen windows (the most important part) LOL.Have a look-see

Here's the view from inside it. He's tested that the wireless network works out there too, so it'll be his summer office some days too.

Looks like a huge picture doesn't it?

I've been knitting of course too. Finished a few more doggy sweaters, and made a shrug for someone at work. She's tiny so it'll look so good...pics later of that.

and finished

ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDD, the big news of the dayI found out my crochet pattern and knitting pattern I submitted to the Crochet-pattern-a-day calendar and the Knitting-pattern-a-day calendar were BOTH!!, yes BOTH accepted, so they'll be in the 2008 calendars. I'm so excited. I'll have to put the pics and patterns up here on my blog too yet.

trying to keep on the sunny side of life.....
Crochet is one of my "peace therapies" along with reading, computer stuff, pursuit of learning Calculus and most important - adoring my dog!! And now Knitting is a new passion too since I re-learned that.